Day 96 Immersion in Tibetan Culture

When I woke up this morning, the body aches were fortunately gone. However, I still had a slight headache. It wasn't really a sharp pain, more like a dull throb somewhere in my skull. At breakfast, I learned from the others that they didn't have a better night's sleep and they all had similar symptoms.

After breakfast, we set off to visit the Drepung Monastery. A monastery is a kind of temple where monks live, pray, and study. This first monastery we visited had turned 600 years old last year.

We got an insight into the various rooms of the monastery and received a description of the various Buddhas and their assistant deities. There are so many that I couldn't even remember half of them and got their names mixed up. We were also informed about the different ranks of the monks, who are categorized into different classes depending on their knowledge and studies.

The highest rank is that of the Dalai Lama. But there are also the Lamas, who are also influential teachers in the monasteries. But to really understand the whole story, it takes more than 3 hours in a monastery. The entire history behind it is fascinating. All the teachings about karma, mantra, tantra, and the cycle of life.

In the afternoon, we visited a second monastery, the Sera Monastery. In terms of structure, it was quite similar to the one this morning. A highlight was watching the monks in a question-answer session.

A monk stood in front of a sitting monk and asked him about the teachings of Buddhism. After each question, he clapped his hands and the person being asked tried to answer the question. If the answer was correct, the next question followed with a clap. If the question was wrong, the monk hissed and struck the back of the other hand with one hand. Then they discussed until the question was answered correctly and the next question could be asked. It was an impressive spectacle.

This worked very well on our hotel's rooftop terrace. In addition, you could admire the beautiful mountain landscape and the view of the Potala Palace.